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The Garden Court

Edward Burne-Jones1870–75

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

The story of Briar Rose (known popularly as "Sleeping Beauty") occupied Edward Burne-Jones on and off for much of his career. He completed three related sets of paintings of the subject over a 30-year period. This drawing probably relates to the first series, now in the Museo de Arte in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Here, vines twist in arabesques against a flat, chartreuse background, as though ensnaring the six servants asleep at a loom and well.

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  • Title: The Garden Court
  • Creator: Edward Burne-Jones (British, 1833–1898)
  • Date Created: 1870–75
  • Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 32.3 x 60.2 cm (12 11/16 x 23 11/16 in.)
  • Provenance: Charles Edward Hallé [1846-1914], London, (sale, Sotheby's, London, November 26, 1926, no. 22), (sale, Christie's, London, June 11, 1993, no. 93), (J. S. Maas and Son, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Drawing
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1994.197
  • Medium: graphite and watercolor, heightened with white gouache
  • Fun Fact: Art historian Andrea Wolk Rager has interpreted this drawing as related to Edward Burne-Jones's socialist beliefs, identifying the weaver at right in the work as a personification of artistic labor, dormant in industrialized Victorian society.
  • Department: Drawings
  • Culture: England, 19th century
  • Credit Line: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
  • Collection: DR - British
  • Accession Number: 1994.197
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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